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Publishing And Marketing Scams

For authors seeking publishers and marketing help you should know it’s a dangerous world out there full of pitfalls, and offers of help aren’t all they are cracked up to be. In fact, those offers may be scams.

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Here is excellent information posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware®:

I’ve been expending a lot of words and time lately warning about the latest scam phenomenon to hit the writing world: fake publishing and marketing companies that, through outrageous prices and worthless services, extract enormous amounts of money from unwary writers.

Based in the Philippines (despite their apparent US addresses, phone numbers, and telemarketer names) and focusing primarily on small press and self-published authors (particularly authors who’ve published with one of the Author Solutions imprints), these companies recruit writers with relentless–and highly deceptive–phone and email solicitations. Some do provide the services authors pay for, albeit at seriously inflated prices and often of poor quality. Others just take the money and run. I’m hearing from a growing number of writers who’ve paid five figures in fees to one–or, in some cases, more than one–of these scams, with next to nothing to show for it.

Given how fast the scams are proliferating (I learn about a new one every few weeks), I thought it would be helpful to gather all the information I’ve put together about them in one place.

To read Victoria’s entire list and the rest of her informative post at Writer Beware click https://accrispin.blogspot.com/2019/08/from-philippines-not-with-love-plague.htm

If you haven’t visited the Writer Beware blog, I would encourage you to take a look.

“Writer Beware: Shining a bright light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls. Also providing advice for writers, industry news, and commentary. Writer Beware is sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.”

7 thoughts on “Publishing And Marketing Scams”

  3. I wish I was in a position to dish out 5-figures (though not to a scam). This sound pretty notorious, though there are lots of “less despicable” scams going on too. Thanks for sharing, Jack.

    Reply

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